Motor State Challenge Autocross Event - Motion Sickness

For Those With The Itch To Drive Their Camaros Hard, The Motor State Challenge Had Just What They Were Craving.

Event
It wasn't that long ago that the most excitement at a static car show was when someone fell out of a lawn chair or tripped over one of those creepy dolls posed next to street rod. But then a renaissance occurred. Thanks in large part to the folks at Air Ride Technologies, a little driving was introduced as a new component at a few Goodguys shows. It was the spark that lit a fire under many gearhead's butts and got them to actually use their cars. It wasn't long before more events started popping up that were hybrids that combined the classic static car show with performance driving opportunities. In addition to the Goodguys shows where the autocross component was quickly gaining popularity, there were other events like the Optima Ultimate Streetcar Invitational and regional events such as the Run Through The Hills and YearOne Experience.

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When we heard another mega event was set to go down in the Midwest, we were all over it. After all, when there's driving involved, we're as afflicted with the "go-fast" sickness as anyone. We spoke with Scott Wahlstrom of Motor State Distributing about how the event came to be. "Our involvement in Pro Touring has been going on for a while now," Scott explains. "We have several dealers, which specialize in building these types of cars, so we've been watching the market to see what we, as a warehouse, need to have on hand for them. We're "hands-on" people so we thought the best way to see what everyone was using and wanting was to get involved. We made a trip down to Bill Howell's Run Thru the Hills event last year and hung out with everyone for the entire weekend. Several of our dealers were there with their cars, so that made for a great time. Bill put on an exceptional event and everyone had a blast. It was very cool to see these cars driven hard. Whether it was on the 60-mile cruise, the autocross, or the dragstrip, these guys are all about seat time. In the evenings, people would hang out and work on broken cars or bench race. Everyone would jump in and help if anyone was in need. That's what it's all about. We were so impressed that by the time the weekend was over, the initial groundwork was put in place for the Motor State Challenge." Rather than tepidly step into it, the decision was made to go all-in with the event. On Friday there was a 60-mile cruise followed by a hosted barbecue and car show. Saturday featured some hard-core road track time at GingerMan Raceway, and Sunday was reserved for an SCCA-organized autocross.

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To be in the running for one of the awards, a car had to finish all three of the driving events. This kept trailer queens and race cars out of the mix since neither would want to tackle the cruise, especially given Friday's stormy weather. The track time at GingerMan was broken down into two groups: "Time Trial" and "Touring." Time Trial consisted of timed laps. No aggressive passing was allowed, but cars were spaced out enough to allow for max-effort laps by those willing to really push their cars. The Touring Class was set up for those who wanted to have fun on the track, but weren't concerned about lap time. For this class, participants wound their way around GingerMan Raceway behind a pace car. This way, even the novice drivers could enjoy the event.

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Sunday was as simple as it was fun-maneuver through the SCCA (South Bend Regional) autocross course as quickly as possible without hitting cones. Time Trial winners were determined by adding their quickest road track time with their quickest autocross time. For the Touring group, the one with the best autocross time, provided they ran in the other events, took home the trophies and prizes.

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Motor State Challenge Autocross Event - Motion Sickness

Jake Parrot came to the event armed for bear with his badass Camaro. In addition to being the loudest ride at the event, it was also one of the fastest. His '69 rides on a custom suspension and relies on Toyo R888 rubber for extra grip.

Kicking off the event was a tour of Lane Automotive, parent company to Motor State Distributing. Their warehouse was pretty amazing and incorporated many state-of-the-art inventory control systems. Row after spotless row of go-fast goodies made us all feel like kids in a candy store.

In addition to Motor State's parent company, Lane Automotive, there's also a 1:18 scale die-cast division called Exact Detail. They focus on muscle cars and offer a huge assortment of Camaros in almost every color and trim level. To see what they have, visit www.exactdetail.com.

After the tour of Lane Automotive, everyone set out on a 60-mile driving tour. The organizers provided maps, and volunteers were on hand to make sure nobody got lost. The destination was a park on the shore of Lake Michigan where Lane hosted a barbecue. Storms were all around us, but the event stayed dry. Here, Douglass Warren enjoys the drive in his sweet fourth-gen.

Mark Stielow and Charley Lillard brought their newly completed LS9-powered Camaro, affectionately named "Jackass" out to the event for its first time on a real track. Mark is a GM engineer and quite a driver, so he knows the GingerMan track well. They snuck in a little track time on Friday and found they needed softer rear springs. This meant they spent a good part of Friday night under the car making the swap. The pouring rain certainly didn't help. Notice the über-high-end carbon ceramic ZR1 brakes. Sweet!

Luckily, all the rain happened Friday night, and Saturday had great weather for driving. The day at the GingerMan Raceway started with all the participants getting their cars through tech inspection. You can find out more about the track at www.gingermanraceway.com.

After the tech inspection, there was a brief drivers meeting where Jeff Luckritz went over the rules and safety regulations for the road course portion of the event. Representatives of the SCCA, who were running the event, also discussed the track layout and the day's schedule.

Like any event where classic cars gather to be driven hard, a good many of the entrants were Camaros. Hey, we weren't complaining. When you look over the results from the weekend's events, you'll notice a heartwarming plethora of Camaros listed.

Cars in the time trial groups were sent out by the SCCA officials at 15-second intervals. That may not sound like much, but on a 1.5-minute course, that's plenty of room to prevent cars from bunching up. Passing was allowed on the two long straights provided there was a "wave by" from the car being passed.

One of the event organizers, Steve Chryssos, from Twist Machine, was eager to hit the track in his reworked '68 Camaro. Steve had recently ditched his leaf springs in favor of a torque arm-based rear suspension from Jake's Hot Rods. We couldn't tell due to the helmet, but we're sure he was all smiles as he turned in a best time of 1:52.65.

Darrin Stainecker just bought his yellow second-gen a couple weeks prior to the event and even though he knew it needed suspension help, he still came out to have fun. Hot on his tail is Jeff Tate in his '69. Jeff has had his Camaro for some time now and never passes up a chance to drive it hard.

It never rains in Southern California, so we shipped our '68 Camaro east to see how the other half lives. And since we're givers, we decided to share the car with David Pozzi. That meant the car got little rest during the day, but we were confident it could handle it. Unfortunately, the brake pads that were fine for autocrossing got cooked under the constant track flogging. This meant we couldn't brake as late in the turns. This resulted in progressively slower laps. Hey, that's the way racing goes. Search YouTube under "Bad Penny Camaro" for some GingerMan track action video.

Here you can see Mark Stielow blasting around the track in Jackass. With a supercharged LS9 underhood and killer brakes, Mark really tore up the GingerMan track, turning in the fastest time of the day. If you want more details, there's a full feature on this kick-ass ride startng on page 46.

Tommy Parker came all the way from Dallas, Georgia, to run his '73 at the event. He told Camaro Performers, "This was by far one of the best events I've attended. That's saying a lot considering it was an inaugural event and I'll be back next year, hopefully with a new Camaro I'm working on." His '73 was no slouch with a GMPP Fast Burn 385 engine, Hotchkis suspension, and Baer brakes. His best lap at GingerMan was 1:47.71 and his fastest autocross time was 34.993 seconds.

The day progressed with very little drama. This was mostly due to the drivers not pushing past their, or their cars' abilities. Unfortunately, the second-gen brought by Heidts had a short day when its fan tore loose and shredded the radiator. Bret Voelkel had the misfortune of hitting the slippery antifreeze and sliding off into the grass soon after. Bret's ride re-entered the competition, but the Heidts Camaro was down for the count. The ambulance was there as a precaution, however, nobody was injured and no metal was dented.

What Matt Altamore's '69 lacks in aesthetics, it more than makes up for in performance. Matt takes his '69 to the track whenever possible and his skill behind the wheel put him among some of the fastest cars.

Camaro Performers feature alumnus, Jim Mulvey was on hand with his gorgeous '69 Camaro. Jim brought the car all the way from Massachusetts to enjoy the festivities and he really pushed his Camaro hard around the track. His quickest lap was a very respectable 1:47.21.

Here we caught DSE owner Kyle Tucker battling it out with his driver Ryan Mathews. Kyle, in the second-gen, wasn't about to let his employee pass him and Ryan wasn't going to give up without a fight. Later, Kyle just smiled and said, "I could have done that all day."

Not all the rides were super high-end Pro Touring cars. Take this stock numbers-matching '69 Z/28 driven by Bill Utley. Rolling on 15-inch rally wheels and equipped without fancy suspension parts, Bill still had a blast pushing his restored Camaro hard around GingerMan.

Back on the track after his excursion into the grass, Bret continued to pound the Velocity Camaro around the course. His best time was a 1:44.86 until something went wrong and the engine bit the dust. Knowing Bret, we're sure he'll have it fixed by the next event since he never misses a chance to beat the snot out of his cars.

There were a couple of fourth-gens at the event like this '00 SS owned by James Smith. Here we caught Jim's Camaro digging in hard around one the courses tighter turns. His quickest time of the day was 34.26 seconds.

Car number 62 belonged to Ray Thompson. We spied this sweet '68 last year at the YearOne Experience in Atlanta, so it's safe to say that Ray gets around. For a chance to flog his Camaro Ray is willing to go just about anywhere. Back at ya on the hand gesture bro.

Sunday was all about the autocross. While cars don't reach the speeds as on the road course, it's still very challenging and requires quick reactions and a nimble car. Randy Bell's killer '67 ran a 140.25 on the road course and he managed to knock down a time of 33.251 seconds in the autocross.

Like the road course, the autocross was also ran by the local SCCA folks. Some of them even brought out their own cars for some fun runs like this Camaro owned by George Williams. We overheard a few of them doubting that these old muscle cars could handle, and that "These guys aren't going to push their show cars." By the end of the day we think they were suitably impressed.

Here, Jeff Tate emerges from the slalom and gets ready to negotiate a hard left. His car may not be fancy, but it's a hell of a lot of fun and Jeff likes that he doesn't have to worry about rock chips or scratches. His best time around the course was 34.381 seconds.

DSE's hot-shoe driver Ryan Mathews tore up the autocross almost as effectively as he did the GingerMan road course. In the vendor's class, his best road course time, combined with his second place autocross time, gave him a first place finish among the competing vendors.

One of the best looking rides at the event was Steve Lenning's '69 Camaro. Packing an LS7 engine and just about the entire catalog of DSE suspension parts, it performed as good as it looked. Steve's best lap at GingerMan was 1:46.28 and his quickest autocross time was 32.610 seconds. If you like this Camaro as much as we did, then you're in luck since we shot it for a future feature.

At the autocross, Bad Penny was finally in its element. The brakes were still a bit spongy from being cooked on the road course, but everything else was perfect. I drove it to a best time of 30.668, while David Pozzi turned in the fastest time of the day with a 29.367, just narrowly edging out Kyle Tucker's 29.387 in his '70.

Jeff Van Buren had been working feverishly to get his '67 finished for the event. Due to some "teething pains" he wasn't able to run the road course, but he did knock down a few autocross laps. His Camaro features a 600hp LS engine by Wegner, DSE suspension, Baer six-piston brakes, and rolls on Kinesis wheels wrapped in Toyo RA1 rubber. Jeff says, "I can't wait to come back next year with a car that is actually working!"

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